Justified
by lookathoworiginalmynameis
Summary: The X-Men take on Cloak and Dagger, superpowered vigilante duo, while an soldier of fortune tries to get to them first. And I suppose a tiny bit of Lancitty figures in, if that's your cup of tea. Read and review, and such.
1. Morning

_A/N: An (very) altered take on theMarvel vigliantes Cloak and Dagger,butin the Evo universe._

_I guess the duo's ties are really closer to Spider-Man, but I found Evo more interesting. I mean, Hell, they appeared in the Ultimate-verse as a joke, and I have to be honest -- it's been too long since I read a comic with Cloak and Dagger in Earth-616(is that term still considered stupid)?_

_Oh, and I'm not used to writing prose. I am a scripty-man. And this is my first fic._

_I make an apology in advance for any suckiness. Oh, and I own nothing. _

* * *

_South Hampton, 1 A.M, Saturday._

"How much do you want?"

"Three-hundred bills. Take it or leave it, but I'm not changing my offer."

Hoffman grimaced. "Accepted. Actually, I have a better idea. I'm gonna take a little smack right now, I think I need it," he said, looking around the park he and his dealer had hidden themselves in. It was a dark night, but Hoffman's unease was only heightened. It was mostly because he was a coward with an overactive imagination.

"You're an idiot," the dealer said. "You know that, man?" Hoffman bit his lip. "Joke," he said. "Not a good one. Jackass," the dealer replied.

He heard a snap. "Hold that thought. I think it's time to go. Bye." The man went to the edge of the parl,going for his sedan, and Hoffman followed. "Hold on, I just gave you my last paycheck and there's no way I'm letting you leave without giving me what I paid for," he said. "Fine," the dealer snapped, handing a bottle of heroin over. "Get arrested. See what I care." Hoffman sneered, and turned to leave, but he paused, seeing a bright light in the park, the only source of illumination. "Wait a second," he said. "Look, what is that?"

The light flew towards the dealer and hit him in the chest. He collapsed on the ground, gasping and twitching. Hoffman went for the car, fumbling around for the handle, when he saw a young man in a cloak approaching. His face looked weathered, and his body was oddly obscured. He had a cold expression on his face. "Oh god oh god oh god oh god--" Hoffman continued trying to open his drug dealer's car without a key in hand. Hoffman tossed his heroin bottle at the young man in frustration.

It literally passed right through him. The cloaked man was upon Hoffman, and he moved, but he wasn't fast, by his estimation he only had a few seconds to live--

"Wait, Cloak--wait--"

Hoffman saw a young blonde woman clad in white approaching. He gaped. "Ehh?" he murmured.

The woman held her hand out, and a dagger of light formed at her fingertip. Hoffman only stared like an idiot, until he realized that the light looked familiar. He shook his head and turned to run, but he only went a few steps before he felt an odd sensation in his shoulder, as if it was burning. He fell, his head slamming into the car. Cloak heard an odd cracking noise.

"You may have killed him," he said impassively.The woman, Dagger, sighed. "I think we should leave now," she said. Cloak nodded.

Dagger walked towards him and entered his cloak.

* * *

_Bayville - 9 hours later_

Kitty Pryde was on the move towards the Brotherhood boarding house on a cold morning in the late winter. And inside the boarding house, Lance was searching desperately for a ring. Not a wedding ring or anything like that, but it was expensive, and the Brotherhood's funds were low, so Lance had the intention of selling it. He searched every square inch of the house for naught. "Damn," he muttered.

Lance took a break from his search, thinking it was time he found breakfast. He walked past the front door, when he caught something in the corner of his eye. He jumped a couple feet as Kitty's head phased through the door.

"Hi," she said, cautiously entering the house. "What happened to knocking?" Lance asked, folding his arms."Hey, it's a better entrance than when you came to the mansion...I'm here because you, um, dropped this, I saw you carrying it a while ago." She held out a gold ring. "It, like...it looks really expensive," she continued as she looked at it."Thanks," Lance said, his hand outstretched.

"Is it stolen?" Kitty asked quickly. Lance jumped again. "No, no--Kitty, no...no. No way." Kitty folded her arms, and Lance tried to force a happier expression onto his face, which withered quickly. "Look, why would I need to steal a stupid ring? We're holding up great over here!" Lance said more boastfully than he had met. He then saw dust falling from the ceiling, and Todd crashed through, slamming into the ground. "Whoa," he said, shaking plaster off of himself. "My bad." He shot Kitty a very awkward look before he hopped off.

Kitty looked testy. "Kitty, I've turned over a new leaf. From now on, I'm going to be a model citizen," Lance said, sticking his thumbs up. "Haven't you guys tried this sort of thing before?" Kitty asked, raising an eyebrow. "Well, yes, but only I have the guts to follow through with it," Lance replied, smirking. "Trust me, that thing isn't stolen." Kitty looked sterner still. "Um, what?" Lance asked.

"It looks like it belongs to Tabby," Kitty said. Lance turned pale. He shook his head forcefully. Kitty nodded. "I think it does," she said. "Kitty, she left it here while she was still living in the place, it's fair game, you must've seen it ages ago," Lance said dismissively. "Lance!" Kitty snapped. Lance mumbled feebly. "Okay," he said. "You give it. Tell her that I entrusted you with it because I'm such a responsible guy, I don't think I can improve my reputation without some help."

Kitty put her hand to her face in exasperation. "Don't you know the first thing about responsibility?" she asked. "Yeah," Lance said, shrugging. "Responsibility is simple, isn't it?"

"I guess for some people," Kitty answered. "What'd you have me do?" Lance asked. "I can't tell Tabby, I don't want a time bomb shoved up my--" "You start there," Kitty said. "Yeah, and then what? Do you want me to join the _team _again?" Lance said with a slight sneer. His expression softened, and hesighed. "Look, I'm not cut out to be the 'good guy' type. I've experienced enough to know that myself."

"Lance, you don't have to, like, win the Nobel Peace Prize. All I'm saying is that you had a good idea going," Kitty said. "Even if you weren't gonna follow through."There was a slightly tense pause. Then Kitty spoke again. "So you don't have any money?" "No, we don't have a _lot _of money, but we aren't starving here," Lance said. "Don't pity us just yet."

Lance could hear Freddy stomping towards the hall. He turned around, only to have an empty cereal box bounce off his head. "We're out of this, this, this..." Freddy said, tossing boxes carelessly. "This, this, this, this..." Lance held his hands up to shield himself. "...this, this, this..." Lance cleared his throat. "Let's make it simple...what do we actually have left?" he asked. Freddy shrugged. Pietro then sped out of the kitchen in front of Lance. "Look!" he snapped, waving a can of Cream of Mushroom in his face. "All we have is soup! _Soup! _It pisses me off, why can't anything decent last for more than a few hours? Arrrgh!" Pietro ran a couple hundred laps around the house to vent his anger.

Lance turned around again. "Well, I guess--" He realized Kitty was gone. "Uh, Kit? Where'd you go?"

* * *

Kitty headed back to the mansion when she turned around and saw Lance run towards her. "Hang on," he said, gasping. "W-why'd you leave?" 

"It was just getting kind of awkward in there," Kitty said. "That's mornings," Lance replied. "Do you want to walk with me?" Kitty asked. Lance nodded. The two headed back to the mansion. Lance took a deep breath. "It's cold," he muttered. "Mm-hmm," Kitty answered. She could hear the faint noise of sirens. "Who died?" Lance mused. The sirens grew louder.

Before the couple considered their next action, they came upon the scene of a woman clad in a white unitard and a man in a dark cloak facing off with a lone police officer. Kitty and Lance stared as the cloaked man took the woman with him into his cloak. The two vanished. Kitty and Lance looked at each other, at a loss for words.

Lance broke the silence: "The _hell _was that?"


	2. Hard Times

Kitty and Lance arrived at the mansion's gate. "Well...here we are," Lance said dully. He stared at the gate for a moment, until it opened and Kitty headed inside. "You gonna tell them about what just happened?" Lance asked.

"Yeah...duh," Kitty said. "You're acting like that was just an everyday thing, did you see what they did?"

Lance shrugged. "I've seen weirder things than that, and you have, too. I bet the X-Gee--I mean, X-Men are going to get on this right away, huh?"

"Probably," Kitty said. "I'll see you later. Lance, don't forget about what I was saying." She kissed him on the cheek. "Bye."

Lance walked back towards town. "I'll do what I have to," he said to himself in a low voice.

* * *

"Professor?" Kitty pulled her jacket off and headed upstairs, searching for Professor Xavier. She spotted Logan leaning against a wall, arms folded. "Logan, where's the professor?" Kitty asked. 

"He's usin' Cerebro. Somebody attacked a group of drug pushers, and they say it was a mutant," Logan said. "I was hopin'that was just prejudice, but the Professor doesn't think so..."

Kitty considered whether the couple she saw could be involved. "I was with...I mean, I was out, and I saw a teleporter with some woman, the police were looking for them. It's probably the two I saw, I mean, how many things like that can happen in one morning?" she said.

"Where were they?" Logan asked.

"It was on Perry Avenue," Kitty replied. "They're gone, though."

Logan narrowed his eyes. "Great way to end the week," he growled.

"I know, right?" Kitty said. She paced around the mansion, waiting for the professor to come back upstairs.

Kitty had other things on her mind...like whether Lance would be able to stay out of trouble. Maybe he wasn't just trying to shut her up. Maybe this time, Lance really could stay out of trouble.

Kitty then shook her head in disgust, tired of kidding herself. She knew that as long as Lance lived under the same roof as the Brotherhood, he'd probably never learn. Eventually, he would get dragged into(or willingly participate in) another scheme of some kind. In spite of Kitty's thoughts, she still tried to remain optimistic. Lance was not that bad -- no matter what the others thought of him. Kitty believed the only one who had the same kind of faith she did in Lance was the Professor.

As Kitty's thoughts returned to Professor Xavier again, she heard him talking to Logan from the hallway she had just left. "I'm having some trouble tracking those two. They don't seem to give off the same trace that regular mutants would."

"So what are we dealing with?" Logan asked.

"I'm not sure yet," the Professor replied. He turned to face Kitty. "Good morning," he said.

"Hi, Professor," Kitty said.

"Logan was just telling me about what you'd seen this morning," the Professor said.

Kitty didn't answer, and Xavier continued speaking. "The two we're searching for have left a trail of vigilante violence all the way from New York City. I've been hearing stories similar to the ones on the news right now for days. All these drug dealers who've been attacked...they were in cardiac arrest when the police found them."

Kitty frowned. "These vigilantes are giving people heart attacks?" she said. Professor Xavier nodded.

"Well, we better hurry and find them, or they'll just move on again," Kitty said. She paused. "We are gonna try to find them, right?"

"Of course," Xavier replied. "The team's going to assemble soon."

Kitty paused before replying. "These people...do they really think they're doing a good thing, or are they just crazy?"

"They could think they're doing this all for the better. You can't take a question like that rhetorically," the Professor said.

"How'd you know it was rhetorical?" Kitty asked. The Professor gave a weak smile. "I am a psychic," he said. "Oh, yeah," Kitty said, sounding sheepish. "Don't be too quick to judge these two, they may be trying to do something good. They could just be misguided, or they don't know how badly their abilities are affecting their victims," Xavier said.

Kitty nodded. "I was having knee-jerk reactions."

* * *

Lance was sitting in the Brotherhood house, staring at static on the television as he thought about what the Brotherhood would do. 

_There has got to be a way to make some money...short of real work._

He walked into the hall. "Is anybody going to fix that freakin' hole?" he asked, looking up at the ceiling. "I swear it got bigger."

Wanda looked downstairs. "Sure, I'll go to the Home Depot and pick up some supplies, you grab a saw," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Just put a sheet over it, that's really ugly," Lance said. "I'll handle our cash situation."

"How?" Todd asked, sticking his head out of the kitchen. "There's nothing we could sell, no funds to borrow from."

"Well...maybe some of us could get jo--" Lance started, when Todd cut him off.

"You almost said the J-word!" he said loudly, sounding displeased. "Try again!"

Lance threw his hands into the air, exasperated. "Well I guess we're all just screwed," he said.

"I'd talk about this, but my share of the soup is getting cold," Wanda said. "You think about what we do."

"You could just ask Daddy for help," Lance snapped. "There's nothing else left. No money...no life, we're all going to have to live in the sewers."

"There's loads of ways to make some dough...you just gotta have the guts," Todd said.

Lance thought about Kitty...but then the prospect of havingbare-bones mealsand a Toad-shaped hole in the ceiling haunted him again. He wandered outside, heading towards town. After a while moving about aimlessly, he found himself surrounded by pawn shops. He stared through the windows, devising ideas. To Hell with doing good--he had figured out another source of money.

* * *

Cloak and Dagger, meanwhile, were hiding on the supports ofa suspension bridge. Dagger was weary after constant use of her abilities on their foes. "I'm feeling starved," Cloak murmured. "I don't know how much longer I can keep it down, even with you around, I need to find somebody." 

"Cloak, please wait, I over-exerted myself last time, it's going to take time to recoup," Dagger replied. "Just a little longer..."

Cloak stared down into the water below. "I can wait. I can't wait forever, though."


	3. Black and White

A/N: In the eyes of the author, chapter 2 was weak.

I bring you chapter three. Twice the length, and twice the...something.

Shoot some comments, will ya?

* * *

Lance entered the Brotherhood house, a cocky grin on his face. Todd looked at him. "Yo, man, what're you so happy about?" he demanded. 

"I was looking outside. Dozens of morons leaving valuable stuff in their lockers, their cars," Lance said. 

"Get to the point," Todd said.

"I was thinking, we could probably just smash open those tinpots and reap the spoils," Lance replied. "It'd get us out of the red, no more soup."

Todd saw a fly and snatched it out of mid-flight with his tongue. "I'm not starvin'," he said. Lance wrinkled his nose.

"You guys can figure swiping car radios out," Todd continued. "'Till then, I'm going to be the only one eating anything."

Lance grimaced. "Fine. See what I care," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Ooh, everybody's happy then," Todd said, shrugging. He looked for another fly.

Lance walked off, still considering his next action. Where was a place without any decent security, that had money around, and was open on weekends? He slumped against a wall with paint peeling off of it. "Hmm..."

Lance could hear bells ringing faintly in the distance. He sighed, checking to see if the clock was wrong in the room. "Ten?" he muttered, setting it. "Do I listen to the church and think it's one, or do--" Lance froze. He walked into the kitchen, wearing a blank expression. 

Wanda looked up from the table. "You're looking paticularly stupid right now," she said casually.

"I'm thinking," Lance said. 

Wanda snorted, thinking Lance's expression was too moronic to indicate anything was going on in his head. "I was just wondering, how do you intend to make some money?" she asked.

"We steal collection plates," Lance replied. Wanda looked taken aback briefly. "Collection plates? You mean, like church donations?" she said.

"Yeah, and while their service is still going, we see what's inside people's cars, take what we want, and sell it," Lance said. "Yeah...that's it, I think we got it."

"No offense, but I think there are better ideas out there than The Great Church Robbery, so why don't you sit down and try devising a plan that doesn't sound stupid?" Wanda asked.

"It only _sounds _stupid. Think; no security, no slowdown. Easy in, and easy out," Lance said. "I can't see us screwing up."

After a moment, Wanda looked less skeptical. "Fair point," she said. 

Lance smiled. "Told you I got it."

* * *

The X-Men were assembled in the foyer. They weren't in uniform yet, and they weren't going through the same preparations that they usually did. 

"I've finally tracked the pair of vigilantes," Xavier said to the group. "They're hiding near the bridge at the moment, and they seem to go out of their way to avoid people. I believe that if all of you show up in full uniform and in the X-Jet...well, I can't imagine they would listen readily. We should send one representative to see if they're willing to accept our help."

"You vant the rest of us to hold back?" Kurt asked, twisting his furry blue hands apprehensively. 

"Look, elf, we gotta make a decent first impression," Logan said. 

"All we need is to send somebody to be the face of the X-Men," Jean said. 

Jean turned to Scott, as did the others. "I'll handle it," Scott said. "If they don't want to listen--"

"Are we goin' to leave Scott without backup?" Rogue demanded. 

"No, of course not," Xavier said. "The rest of you should find a vantage point near the bridge, close enough for Scott to signal you if things don't go well."

The group had no qualm with the plan. Rogue and Kurt, however,were wary and weren't looking forward to the upcoming encounter. Kitty was slightly uneasy, but she figured that Scott would be able to handle the situation. 

_He's the fearless __leader, and he's smart enough to know if they aren't interested, _Kitty thought.

Rogue and Kurt looked at each other. Scott noticed their expressions. "Something wrong?" he asked. 

"Oh, uh, no, nothin's wrong," Rogue said.

Kurt shrugged. "Let's go," he said. 

"Uh, Professor? What are their names? Or have they only picked up an alias?" Kitty asked.

"One of the survivors of their attacks claimed they referred to themselves Cloak and Dagger," Xavier answered.

Kitty let out a small, derisive noise. "Dagger? I can understand Cloak, but..."

"Apparently she's the one who caused those heart attacks, by launching some sort of energy from her fingertips," Xavier said. Scott looked troubled.

"Is this about recruitment? I'm not so sure after hearing about these two..." He trailed off.

"Not as of right now, but if they do come around...there's always a place at the Institute open," Xavier said. "For now, I want you to hear what they have to say about what they've done from their perspective."

The X-Men looked at each other. Kitty didn't look like her usual jaunty self; she was staring across the room with her eyes half-closed.

"Well, there's our little optimist," Rogue whispered to Kurt. "Wonder what's up, she's been actin' sorta 'off' for a while now."

Kurt pondered what was going on with Kitty, through the discussion of Scott's signal right up to the moment when the team suited up and headed for the X-Van. He knew she had gone to visit Lance this morning, and was suspicious. Kitty had asked Kurt if he could take her to the Brotherhood house, and he had declined.

_Was I being rude? _Kurt thought. Scott looked at him through his combat visor. "What's up?" he asked. 

"Nothing," Kurt answered. "It's just...Avalanche."

"What about him?" Scott asked swiftly. "What's he done?"

"Kitty thought he was stealing, but I vas more worried about the way she's been acting lately," Kurt replied.

"So where's _he_ come into play?" Scott asked.

"I don't know yet," Kurt said. "But I'm almost sure he has something to do with it."

"I don't think that's far off," Scott said.

"You don't like him either, do you?" Kurt asked, grinning.

"I don't hate the guy, but he's never going to get a care package from me," Scott replied.

The group entered the vehicle. Rogue and Kurt looked at Kitty, and then at each other. Kurt took his seat. "Kitty? Vat's wrong?" he asked.

"Huh? Nothing," Kitty said, sounding a bit surprised. "I'm doing pretty good...just didn't get a lot of sleep, I was working on a paper, and it was, like, sorta hard to...to..."

"What's Lance been up to?" Kurt asked. 

Kitty froze.

"Sorry?" she said. "Lance? I want him to try to clean up his act again, but I know he's going to fail."

"Hm," Kurt responded dully.

"I mean, it's not like he can't...but we'll have to talk about this later," Kitty said as the van left the mansion.

* * *

Fate works in unusual ways.

Dagger never would have met Cloak if he hadn't been in the exact situation she had been in. The two were both runaways when they met, and they were still runaways. They would probably be like that always and forever.

Their powers were beneficial to another. Dagger found that she needed to purge her body of the energy she now commanded, or she would lose control, spitting it out left and right. Cloak needed the "light" that drove living beings. He found it in everyone; criminals, head cases, and most importantly, with Dagger. Being around her seemed to keep the bizarre hunger Cloak felt in check, constantly, but even so, he often sought out other sources.

The pair were still hiding at the bridge, on the support. Missteps could be fatal, but neither of them had fallen yet.

"I think I have enough," Dagger said. 

Cloak stood. Dagger tossed one of her projectiles into the cloak.

"And now I'm starved," Dagger said, sounding somewhat bitter. "How much longer can we keep this up?"

Cloak looked even more grim than his usual appearance--if such a thing was possible. He always had the look of death itself, but Dagger had never been bothered by that. Cloak wasn't evil. He had killed before, but never anyone who was virtuous.

"I'll find something for you," he said. Dagger seemed distracted by something over his shoulder. At the edge of the water, there was a man wearing a ruby-red visor. He was costumed. Cloak stood still. 

"Who is that? What do you think he wants?" Dagger mused. Cloak only faced off with Scott, who was holding his hands up.

"Hey!" Scott shouted. "It's Cloak and Dagger, right? Do you think I could talk to you?"

Scott was privately kicking himself. _Nicely played, Cyclops, _he thought. He was distracted by Dagger, who had a crescent-shaped mark next to her right eye and appeared to be glowing, in stark contrast to Cloak, who looked like a void, a walking black hole.

"What are we going to do?" Dagger said in a low voice.

"Perhaps we should hear him out. If he tries anything odd, I'll take care of it," Cloak answered.

In one movement of his cloak, the duo were next to a startled Scott, who backed away. 

"Were you going to say something?" Dagger asked. 

"Yes...I'm with the X-Men," Scott said. Cloak and Dagger's expressions of tension faded slightly. Now they looked as if they didn't understand what Scott had just said. "Who are the X-Men?" Cloak asked.

"From the Xavier Institute? We help out mutants," Scott said.

"We're not mutants," Dagger said.

Scott raised his finger. "But, you do happen to have a dormant X-gene that was recently activated...or so I was told, wouldn't have been able to find you as quickly otherwise."

Cloak and Dagger exchanged a look.

"So what are you here for?" Dagger asked.

"I was sent to offer some help," Scott replied. "On the behalf of Professor Xavier. We'd like to--"

"We don't need it," Cloak said.

Dagger nodded. She looked at Scott with curiosity. "We have other things to worry about right now," she said. 

"Yes, about those other things..." Scott began.

Dagger narrowed her eyes. "You sound a bit judgemental. You here to take us to task? To tell us how horrible we've been?"

"Well, frankly, if you're trying to fight crime, you've been going at it the wrong way," Scott said.

"Fight fire with fire," Dagger said. "We're going to keep pushing for some change."

Scott looked up at the underside of the bridge. "You do know how many people you've killed?"

"They had it coming," Dagger replied. "These things always sound horrible if you take them out of context."

"Well, you're making a judgement call and it's going to catch up with you unless you be careful!" Scott warned. 

Dagger narrowed her eyes further. She walked towards Cloak. "Thank you, but we've heard enough," she said. Dagger didn't sound thankful in the slightest, and she knew it.

"Wait," Scott said, moving towards them. Dagger pointed at him. "We're going to leave."

"Are you going to kill again?" Scott asked. 

"We'll do what we must," Cloak said. "There's people in thistownwho ran here when they found out their peers were beingtaken down...that means we're doing something right."

Scott's brows knitted together. "If you're going after more criminals, I can't let you leave so fast," he said.

"Well, are you going to slow us down all on your lonesome?" Dagger asked angrily. "No," Scott said. He whistled loudly.

BAMF. Kurt and Kitty appeared beneath the bridge. Rogue, Jean and Ororo arrived seconds later. Logan was the last one to show up. 

Dagger was alarmed at the appearance of the team, but she felt more confident in a beat. "We didn't come for a fight..." Dagger moved next to Cloak. "But if you're going to insist on stopping us, then let's go at it."

She pointed at Scott, and a dagger flew towards him. He dodged it in the nick of time as Kurt teleported in front of Dagger. 

"Don't--"

BAMF. Kurt was behind her.

"--do that."

Dagger aimed a kick at Nightcrawler, knocking him to the ground. He jumped back to his feet as Dagger pointed at him. He grabbed onto her arm and shoved it upwards as she launched a projectile. It ricocheted and hit Logan, who dropped to the ground, groaning. There was a burn in his shoulder, but it healed within a few seconds.

Logan focused on Cloak as Dagger tried to take on the others. "Wait, we aren't interested in a--" Scott started, but Dagger launched another projectile. Kurt grabbed him and BAMFed away. Ororo and Jean moved towards Dagger, who leapt backwards. She was remarkably agile. As Jean tried to protest, Dagger flung another projectile, keeping her at bay. 

Jean was growing frustrated. This wasn't a time to fight, and the professor didn't want them to, but Jean wasn't in the mood to let Cloak and Dagger get themselves killed fighting somebody else...not that it seemed likely. They were doing an exceptional job of defending themselves right now. Cloak was constantly warping around the group, trying to get them disoriented enough to land a blow. Dagger tried to reunite with him, and Jean was sure it was to leave.

Rogue followed Dagger. "You can't stay calm for five minutes?" Rogue asked. Dagger pointed at her and Rogue ducked. The attack missed."Ah s'pose not," she said. Dagger headed back to her companion.

Kitty faced Cloak as he strode towards her. He gave her a challenging look. Kitty was uncertain of what she should do, but Logan seemed to have made up his mind. He moved towards Cloak. "Did you wanna say something, bub?" he asked.

Cloak only remained silent as he moved towards the two. Logan felt threatened and charged, and Cloak opened his cloak, moving slightly to the side. "This is not a goddamn bullfight--" Logan spat as as he stumbled into the cloak.

He disappeared. Kitty circled Cloak, looking for Logan, but she saw nothing. "Logan? Logan!" she shouted. She ran at Cloak, who was ready. Cloak enveloped her, and she found herself in the darkness.

She was terror-stricken, and looked for a way back out, but there was no exit she could see. The cloak was some sort of one-way gate, she thought wildly. If he could pass through it to teleport, then why wasn't there an escape? She moved her hand around, trying to find a hold, but there was nothing to grasp. She couldn't even see her own hands in the dark, she was going to die in here(where was she?), and she knew it...

She spotted a bright light, and reached out. Her mind was clouded by fear, but she had to grab something.

As she stretched her arm out, Kitty saw horrible but indistinct visions. She attemped to ignore them, but the images were potent. She grabbed onto the source of light and didn't let go.

Seconds later, she found herself back on solid ground again, clinging to Dagger's arm. She fell to the ground, twitching feverishly.

Dagger shoved Kitty aside and turned to Cloak. Logan was floored as well. "Did you bring these two through?" Cloak asked.

Dagger nodded, and turned back to Kitty. "I'm sorry," she said. "But I'm not going to let any of you slow us down. Tell the others to stay away, because this isn't your problem, and we don't need help."

Kitty was trying to figure out where Cloak had teleported to, and realized they were on a rooftop. She had made no attempt to stand, feeling strangely lethargic.

"Goodbye," Cloak said. Within seconds, Cloak and Dagger had vanished again.

After some time, Logan slowly got back to his feet. "C'mon, Kit-Kat," he said. "It's pretty obvious this was a waste of time, we learned nothing about these two...aside from what that damn cloak is like."

Kitty shuddered when she thought about going through--how was it that Dagger could handle that kind of experience so easily?

"I'm gonna tell Charles these people aren't looking for a conversation," Logan muttered, mostly to himself.


	4. Disappointment

A/N: After that, you have a short little chapter.

If you like it, review. If you loathe it, review. If it's somewhere in between, review.

* * *

"I hope they didn't dump us in another country or something," Kitty said as she looked for the stairs. "What was with that place anyway? Another dimension?"

Logan came upon the emergency stairwell. "Your guess is as good as mine," he said as he opened it and headed downstairs.

Kitty and Logan ran downstairs until they reached street level. Kitty looked around. The city was reassuringly familiar. "Okay...they left us in town," she said, relieved. Kitty gave more thought to what she had just experienced. Dagger had just saved their lives, and she wasn't sure why. If she had thought the X-Men were so bad, then she would have left them to die.

"What're you thinking about?" Logan asked.

"I don't know why she pulled us out," Kitty replied.

"Moment of weakness," Logan said.

Kitty still thought there was more to it than that, but she didn't say so. She just waited as Logan contacted the rest of the team.

* * *

Much later, Kitty and Logan were reunited with the rest of the group, who were en route back to the X-Mansion. Kitty was telling the others about what had happened.

"They think they're heroes," Scott said. "Maybe she couldn't rationalize killing you."

"Weren't they the ones who picked that fight?" Jean asked.

"Well, yes, but I handled that conversation poorly," Scott answered. "'Hi, we're with the X-Men, come with us and we can help you'. Stupid of me, I don't know what I was thinking." He sighed. "I gave them no reason to trust me."

"Don't beat yourself up," Jean replied.

"They've probably left town by now," Kitty said.

"I don't think so," Scott replied. "They said that there are drug dealers who ran here when Cloak and Dagger attacked everybody else, so we have a little time to track them down again."

"Yeah, as long as a bunch of doped-out morons can save themselves," Logan replied.

Kitty thought about Cloak's abilities. "If Cloak draws most of his powers from that thing, what would happen if you just took it from him?" she mused.

"I dunno, but I tried reaching for him...my hand went straight through him," Logan said.

"He's intangible?" Jean said.

"Looks like it," Logan said. "No telling what other tricks he has up his sleeve, we were there for maybe five minutes."

"If we have another bad encounter, I'm going to keep that in mind," Scott said.

* * *

The professor was somewhat exasperated after hearing about how things went from shaky to horrible. Scott realized how he felt, and was embarrassed.

"I don't know how it happened, one second we were on track, I was about to talk about the Institute, and the next, she's throwing daggers at us, and I wanted us to avoid fighting back," Scott said. "You think we've lost them forever?"

"I can't be sure," Xavier said. "I just hope they don't attract the wrong sort of attention."

Scott had an unpleasant realization. "Mystique," he blurted out. "What if she catches up with them?"

"Just the thought I was having," Xavier replied. "I'm not sure if she's still in Bayville, but...there may be one way to check..."

Upstairs, Kitty was settling down from the recent events and trying to tackle her work, when she heard Xavier's voice in her head.

_Kitty, I'd like for you to meet me back in the foyer._

Kitty tsked and phased through the door, heading back to Xavier.

On the way downstairs, she bumped into Tabitha, and suddenly realized she was still carrying the ring from earlier.

"Tabby!" she exclaimed. "I completely forgot..." She produced the ring, and Tabby eyes widened. "Where'd that come from?" she asked.

"Lance...he...Lance found it, and he thought you'd want it back," Kitty said.

"Well, brownie points for Avalanche," Tabby said, taking the ring. Kitty continued onwards, pondering why she had bothered lying for Lance.

_It's because you're his girlfriend. Duh! _she thought.

She met up with Scott and Xavier. "Professor," she said. "What's up?

"Kitty, I was hoping, if it wasn't too awkward...could you ask Lance if he knows anything about the wherabouts of Mystique?" Xavier said.

Kitty waited a full three seconds before answering, "Yeah, sure. I can do that."

Xavier sighed. "Kitty, if this is going to be any--"

"Oh, no, no, no, no, Professor, I can ask him," Kitty said, shaking her head. "It's really no problem." She smiled weakly.

"Thank you," the professor said.

Kitty walked off again. She looked out a window, noticing dusk was upon them already, and she thought about the trouble Lance may have been getting in that very second.

* * *

But Lance wasn't getting into trouble. He was sitting in front of the TV near Pietro, and he was bored as hell. They had just sat through another inspirational sports drama, and Pietro didn't enjoy it, but it was that or infomercials.

Pietro flipped through channels. "I hate underdog stories, they're so misleading, it's sickening," he said. "You can go from rags to riches if you believe in yourself? Gag me!"

"Some of us are just born lucky, ya know," Lance said, watching Pietro change stations at an annoyingly fast rate. He paused. "Where's your old man?"

"Probably with the Acolytes," Pietro replied.

"Did you get the cold shoulder?" Lance asked.

"No. Shut up," Pietro said.

Lance rolled his eyes. "You're sticking with us willingly? I'm so touched."

"I thought I told you to shut your mouth," Pietro said. "Don't talk to me like that."

"Need I remind you that I was field leader for some time?" Lance said.

"That doesn't mean anything," Pietro said.

"I'm going to need you tomorrow morning," Lance said, acting as if the conversation hadn't gotten close to excitement at all.

"For what?" Pietro demanded.

"You're gonna go to church with your sister," Lance said. "She agreed for you."

"What?" Pietro said. "I'm not gonna go, why do you need me to go to church?"

"For your speed," Lance said. "I need you to lift some donations, whatever else there is."

Lance rolled his eyes. "We're going to rob a church. We've hit rock bottom. Not morally, but seriously, is a church the only place we can handle?"

"God helps those who help themselves," Lance said.

"Where'd you hear that?" Pietro asked.

"I dunno," Lance said, shrugging. "Maybe it was in a fortune cookie."

Pietro turned back to the TV. "When's Saturday Night Live on?" he asked.

"About six or seven hours," Lance said.

Pietro let out a long, agonized sound.


	5. Sunday Morning Smile

_A/N: Another day, another chapter posted._

* * *

_Sunday, 9 A.M._

"You look stupid," Todd said, smirking at the sight of Pietro in a cheap suit.

"Don't expect to tap into any funds we're gonna have," Pietro said, eying Todd angrily. "Why should you stand to get anything from our work?"

Lance snapped his fingers. "It's time," he said.

Lance, Pietro, and Wanda left the boarding house in Lance's jeep, leaving Todd and Freddy behind. "What'll we do now?" Freddy asked.

"I dunno," Todd said. He hopped towards the TV. "Maybe there's something decent here." He turned it on, and only saw worship services. "Oh, c'mon, you gotta be kidding..." He turned the knob. Nothing but static or religious programming.

"No, no, no, this sucks, yo," Todd said, groaning. "I can't believe it..."

"We could go to town," Freddy suggested.

"Nah, I want to invade some privacy!" Todd entered Lance's room. "Wonder what he's been hiding in here..." He leapt around the room, knocking over a bedside table. There was nothing really of note, so Todd jumped out the window. "Where ya goin'?" Freddy asked. "I'm bored," Todd said. "Sunday mornings suck." He heard a knock at the front door, as did Todd, who headed off to see what it was with zeal. Maybe it was something exciting.

"I got it!" Freddy shouted.

"Yo, I got it!" Todd answered.

As Freddy rounded the corner, heading for the stairs, he fell straight down into the hole Todd left, yelling. More of the second floor collapsed as he slammed into the ground.

He grabbed the door roughly and pulled it open, just as Todd made it around the house.

"Hi," Kitty said.

Freddy stared at Kitty like she had two heads.

"Is Lance around?" Kitty asked.

Todd bounded in front of Kitty, who stumbled backwards in surprise. "No," Todd said. "He ain't here."

Kitty sighed. "Where'd he go?" she asked.

"What's it to you? He'll be back in a couple hours," Todd replied. "So just hang tight. No, you know what? Go back to your pretty little mansion, with the waxed floors, and the golden toilets, and--"

"Golden toilets?" Kitty repeated. "Toad, if you know where he went, then, like, just say so."

"I know," Todd said. "And I ain't sayin' nothin."

"Yeah, let Lance spend his morning in church in peace," Freddy said. Todd and Kitty both looked up at him.

"Lance went to _church?" _Kitty said. "Wow...are you for real? Which one did he go to?"

Kitty didn't seriously expect an answer, and neither Todd nor Freddy spoke up.

Rain was beginning to come down. "X-geeks...stay home," Freddy said, heading inside and locking the door. Todd went back in the same way he came out, and Kitty left in a hurry, going towards the closest church she could think of.

Wanda and Pietro were sitting in the back of the church chapel, waiting for the offering. "I feel like an idiot," Pietro said. "I can't believe you told him I would do this."

"What?" Wanda hissed. "Lance said the same thing about you!"

"We've been had?" Pietro narrowed his eyes. "I can't believe that jackass! If we're going to sit here like a couple of chumps and do what that idiot tells us just because he thinks he's the king of the castle because he was the freakin' 'field leader', then my dignity is sapped. I don't know why we put up with him, I tell you, we should just evict that--"

"Let's just stick to his stupid idea and then we'lll get out of here," Wanda interrupted.

Meanwhile, Lance walked through the parking lot, looking through the windows of various vehicles. "Let's see now, what do we have?"

Lance spotted an ugly brown pickup, and headed to the back. He leaned over and began rummaging around inside it. He found a circular saw beneath a tarp. He pulled the saw out, feeling nervous. He was losing track of the time and he wasn't even sure when the church service ended. Lance eyed the doors to the chapel, when he realized something else he could take.

He began pulling the hubcaps off of the cars, taking as many as he could carry. His arms were nearly full, but he reached down in a rather stupid attempt to pull one last hubcap off of a Corvette.

An alarm began blaring.

Lance shrieked and the hubcaps scattered. He began picking them up in a frenzy, and ran for his jeep. He tossed the saw and the hubcaps in the back and started the car. Pietro and Wanda could catch up with him later.

Kitty was walking towards the church when she saw Lance drive by at reckless speed, heading back to the Brotherhood house. "Lance!" she yelled. "Wait!"

Lance must have been losing it--he could've sworn he heard Kitty's voice, but he shook it off. "Stay cool, Avalanche," he said as he came to a stop at the house. He picked up everything he had swiped, and brought it inside.

The first thing Todd asked him as he entered the house was, "Yo, where's Wanda?"

"She'll be back later," Lance said. "For now, we need to put this crap somewhere."

Lance checked outside to see if the rain was coming down any harder, and saw Kitty running towards the house. "Uh...fast, we need to do it fast! Now, now! Screw it, just put that stuff away!" he said frantically as he headed back out to meet Kitty.

He put a strangled smile on as Kitty approached. "Lance? I heard you were in church."

"I was..."

"Well, you seemed eager to get out. I wanted to see you, though," Kitty said, wondering how she could introduce the topic of Mystique into the discussion without Lance becoming defensive.

"Here I am, in the flesh," Lance said, still trying to smile.

"Yeah...hey, listen, is Mystique around?" Kitty asked.

"Nah, she's out of town...why?" Lance said.

"I was thinking if she wasn't breathing down your neck for now, we could go out and have some fun," Kitty said.

"Well, thanks, but this isn't the best time...sorry," Lance said.

"Oh."

"Maybe tomorrow afternoon."

Before Kitty could reply, Pietro sped in front of Lance with Wanda in tow. "Two hundred bucks and you not there?" Lance snapped, holding up some money. "You are such a pain in the ass."

Lance stopped breathing. Pietro noticed Kitty. "You again?" he said. "Get out of here."

"Bye," Kitty said to Lance.

"We'll talk later," Lance said quietly.

And with that, Kitty headed back to the mansion.

* * *

Vonne was a man who used to pride himself on cleanliness.

He couldn't always manage it. Sometimes, when people hired him, they told him to do in a target quick and nasty and be done with it. And he would. After several successive failures to collect any evidence he had left behind, he never tried again. He used things that went boom, and he never collected shell casings he left, or needles. He got sloppy. He was still an admirable soldier of fortune in the eyes of his employers, because _they_ never were linked to any hits.

Simon Marshall was a different story. Somebody had killed him. Vonne was left without a check he should've gotten after taking out some of the competition for Marshall.

So he was going to take it out of the killer's ass. Or was it a plural? He suspected Cloak and Dagger, the vigilantes who drug dealers across New York were talking about. They sounded pretty wild, and they were targeting people like Marshall. He was a twisted man, though he had paid well. He was experimenting with new drugs, and testing them on anybody stupid enough to risk their lives, right around the time Cloak and Dagger rumors were popping up.

Vonne had tracked these two freaks straight out of the Hamptons. If they were mutants, it would be twice as fun killing them. Mutants really bothered Vonne. They were twice as hard to kill, obscenely difficult to compete with, and they just disturbed him. The only advantage he had over mutants were his guns...that, and he had taken samples the late Simon Marshall had left behind. His notes claimed that he had accidentally discovered some kind of "enhancer" while he was working on developing some super-smack or some dumb shit like that.

Vonne had been lying low, but he stopped at a Baptist church for a few minutes to find a restroom, and when he got back out, somebody had stolen the saw he used to modify his shotgun, right out the back of his truck. And they'd taken his hubcaps, too.

He ran his fingers through his blonde crew cut, cursing.

Vonne had liked those hubcaps. He felt a stupid sort of pride over the fact that they'd never gone flying off for all the time he had owned his truck, no matter how many bumps he hit.

At least they'd left his weapons. Vonne had concealed them in the front of the truck, and if they had decided to break the window open, he would've been screwed for sure.

It was a sign that Vonne had to hurry up and find Cloak and Dagger. He knew it.


	6. Money Burns

Kitty arrived back at the mansion, watching Kurt throw a frisbee and then teleport to catch it. "What's up with that?" she asked.

"I'm lonesome. Nobody wants to catch the frisbee," Kurt said. "I will," Kitty said eagerly.

"Okay," Kurt said, perking up. "Go long." He tossed it and Kitty took off full speed after it. She grabbed it out of midair.

"So," Kurt said. "What happened?"

"All I did was find Lance," Kitty sighed. "It wasn't a successful visit. I mean, I did try to find out where Mystique was for the Professor. I could've gotten it if he knew."

"Vhy vould Professor Xavier--" BAMF. Kurt caught the frisbee, which had veered off-course. "--want to talk to her?"

Kitty sighed. "I don't know."

"Do you think it could concern me? Or Rogue?"

"I dunno, Kurt. It might, or it might be nothing. Trivial," Kitty said. "How trivial could it be? It's _her_," Kurt pointed out. He made an awkward throw. It wasn't particularly easy for him to toss it with his fingers.

"You're right, but like I said, I don't know," Kitty sighed after she had caught the frisbee. Kurt walked over and crouched on the grass as she sat.

"Vat is it?" Kurt asked. "I'm worried about Lance. I think he's back into illegitimate stuff. And I'm worried that it's his idea. The Brotherhood was managing fine before, I guess they, like...just completely wasted all of their money."

Kurt scoffed, "The Brotherhood...don't sweat it."

"But I want him to be out of trouble," Kitty said.

"He'll get out of trouble! Avalanche, I mean come on!" Kurt said, shaking his head. "You know you get along with him better than anybody else, maybe you could just...talk."

"I am going to," Kitty said firmly. "I think that money's coming from weird places."

* * *

Vonne was loading all of his weapons as Guns 'n Roses blasted from his truck's radio. His annoyance had built as time had passed, going to a stupid degree--he wanted to find the punks who had taken from his truck. They could probably wait; Cloak and Dagger were more important. And he thought he was going to need some more weapons. Something special. Expensive. And he wanted it to hurt a lot. They had cost him dearly with this one. He could have gotten out of New York and headed off to some glorious island paradise.

"Yeah right. Just like in the movies...stupid-ass," he whispered to himself.

He sang along with Axl softly. "Now you're clean and so discreet...I won't say a word...but most of all this song is true, in case you haven't heard...so c'mon and stop your cryin'..."

_We both know money burns..._


	7. Beatdown

"Hey, man," a guy on a bike said to Vonne as he got out of his truck. "You looking for the vandal who did that? I stopped my bike. Kid had a jeep."

"What? What did he look like?" Vonne asked with interest. "Brown-eyed, black-haired," the bicyclist said. "Went that way."

"Much obliged, stranger," Vonne said, grinning rather crookedly. "Um, yeah," the bicyclist said, a bit put off. He rode off as Vonne got into his truck and shoved his keys into the ignition, driving away from the church loudly.

"Weird guy," the bicyclist said, looking back at the truck as it left.

* * *

Lance hadn't parked discreetly; in fact, on this day, he hadn't even remembered to park close enough to the curb. His jeep was simple enough to pick out if one knew what they were looking for.

Lance was busy sorting through the collection money. "Small bills," he said. "Well, yes, it's a church," Wanda said.

"This is beautiful," Freddy said. Lance swore he could see the little dollar signs in his eyes.

"We need to spend some of it on utilities, need I remind you all," Pietro interjected. "I know _some _of us happen to think with our stomachs first."

Freddy gave Pietro an angry look. "Shut up."

Lance just shrugged. "I'm gonna go grocery shopping," he said, moving around with a bit of swagger. He grabbed a twenty. "I'll see you guys later," he said as he threw the door open and came face-to-face with an angry man pointing a loaded shotgun at his face.

"You robbed the church. Give me everything. Now," Vonne spat. He leveled his gun when it was yanked from his hands by Pietro in the blink of an eye. "No," Lance said, feeling cocky. "You get the Hell away from this place unless you want the ass-whupping of a lifetime."

"Yeah, man. You picked the wrong day to take up vigilante violence," Todd said.

Vonne tried to look unfazed. "I want my hubcaps back," he said in a low voice. Lance shot a look at Pietro and shook his head. "He has to be kidding..." As the two shared a good laugh, Vonne pulled a combat knife out and lunged at Lance with it. He yelped and grabbed onto Vonne's arm, keeping him at bay. "You little son of a bitch!" Vonne hissed, managing to get Lance down when a lamp fell on his head.

Wanda backed away. "Nice," Todd said. Vonne groaned, still clutching his knife. His grip loosened and it slid from his hands.

Freddy looked at Todd. "You know what?" he said. "Today I actually feel like takin' the garbage out."

"Oh, go for it..." Todd grinned as Freddy grabbed Vonne by his ankle and dragged him out of the house. Vonne kicked a few times when he took a trash can lid to the face and was shoved roughly into the can, which fell over.

Lance watched, feeling dismayed. "Who was that guy? And why does he have these?" he asked. "Don't know, but I'm not bugged enough to find out," Pietro said, examining the gun.

"Give me that," Wanda snapped, grabbing the shotgun away. "You're gonna shoot a hole through something."

"Or somebody," Lance said dryly. He walked out to the garbage can. "I don't know who you are, but next time we hear from you, we're not gonna be so lenient," he said, as Vonne got out, stumbling to his feet.

"Was out of it. Could have kicked your little punk ass about a year ago," Vonne said weakly. "Oh, you could have done this, you could have done that, the Earth could've opened up and swallowed you..." Lance grinned. "Hey..."

The ground began to quake, knocking Vonne off his feet again. "You suck. Maybe when you get some powers you can come back, okay? Goodbye now!" Lance went back to the house and picked up the combat knife. He looked at it, seeing the letter "V" was on the blade. "Huh," he said.

Vonne got back in his truck grudgingly. _Muties..._

"I think that went rather well, don't you guys?" Pietro said, unconcerned.

Todd nodded. "Yeah, especially when he got thrown in the garbage. Awesome. Now let's get some heaters to work or something," he said. He heard a rumbling noise. "What the Hell?"

Vonne's truck smashed through a wall, obliterating it. Plaster and dust rained as the truck went through another wall, hitting Wanda in the back. "Oh, shit!" Pietro shouted, loud enough to wake the dead. The truck backed out of the house, bouncing a bit as it passed over some debris.

"Okay. Screw food. We're going to need to pay hospital bills," Lance said, alarmed as he looked at Wanda, who wasn't getting up. Pietro grabbed her wrist. "Ohgodohgodohgod--" He paused. "Okay. She'll live. Where'd the truck go?"

"I dunno," Todd said, who looked stunned at the bad turn of events. "W-why?"

"Because I'm gonna go kill that guy."

"What about your sister?" Lance said demandingly. "Yeah, man! What about her?" Todd interjected, looking at Pietro.

"Someone's gotta see if she shifted a disc," Lance continued. "Hey--maybe..."

Pietro shook his head. "Maybe _what?_ Out with it!" he shouted.

"We could take her to the X-Men's. They got medical down."

There was a long silence. One could almost hear the gears grinding in Pietro's head. Freddy hadn't said a word. Todd was still staring at Wanda, fearful for her well-being.

"Get me up," she said abruptly, coughing a bit. "Whoa! You're awake. You can feel your legs?" Todd said.

"Yes!" Wanda snapped, livid. "I can feel my legs! Now get me up! This is _excruciatingly painful, _Pietro!"

Todd looked up from Wanda. "I'm actually kind of impressed. If I were in that pain, I wouldn't be able to string together all the little syllables and whatever in--"

"Toad, _shut up_!"

The ceiling in the other room fell down.


	8. To the Mansion

_A/N: I think that I'm going to be updating more often from now on...I can't really say regularly, but I had some kind of weird stroke of inspiration. That, and I feel like a total moron for not updating at all for nearly an entire freakin' year. _

_Would you be so kind as to drop a few lines in as a review? I gotta know..._

* * *

"This is just brilliant. We can't stay here with the ceiling like that, and a hole up there, and freakin' psychopaths trying to kill us with their ass-normous trucks."

"So..."

"So I think you should listen to my idea. We leech off Xavier," Lance said, trying to make it sound cool...and failing. He looked from Wanda and Pietro, who were both looking pretty pissed off, to Todd, who had the kind of expression one gets when they're told a bad joke. Freddy was merely frowning.

"If you love the old guy so much, go marry him," Todd said. "It's Kitty Pryde and we all know it," Pietro muttered.

Lance just shook his head. "Like it's gonna hurt so much to use a little charity this one time," he said. "Oh, you think of that _now_ instead of when you decided to rob a church?" Wanda said, incensed. She winced as she shifted around, and held onto the wall to support herself. "Yo, you need a shoulder?" Todd asked.

"No," Wanda said. She rounded on Lance. "You need to remember what a stupid idea that was. I'm not going to live this down." She winced again. "God! Ow!"

Lance just sat down and drummed his fingers on the floor, allowing another long period of silence. Wanda seemed to be deep in thought. Then:

"We aren't staying there forever. That includes you, Avalanche."

Lance looked up. "So now you change your mind?" he asked cockily.

"Yes. And I think we should move now, before I change it again."

* * *

Kitty was still outside with Kurt when she looked towards the gates. "Hey, I see someone."

"Who?" Kurt asked, looking in the same direction. He teleported closer, and then back. "It's the Brotherhood," he said with distaste. "What?" Kitty said loudly.

"Excuse me, Kitty." Kurt BAMFed away again as Kitty headed towards the gates, seeing the entire group was there.

"Yo! We got a problem!" Todd shifted his legs slightly as Kitty looked through the gate. "Hey, Kitty," Lance said.

"What are you guys doing here?" Kitty said in a slightly exasperated tone.

"The only thing that could get us out of there. The house is wrecked, some weirdo wants to kill us."

Kitty looked at Wanda. "Why do you have a shotgun?" she asked in disbelief. "Kitty, it belonged to this psychopath with a big pickup truck. And the son of a bitch had the nerve to trash my Jeep, too!" Lance said angrily.

"Hey," Kitty said sternly.

"Gee, I'm sorry. These are the happy-go-lucky X-Geeks we're talking to, we wouldn't want to offend their virgin ears or anything! Will you just let us in, or are we wasting time?" Pietro said, out of patience. "He nearly broke Wanda's spine when he smashed into the house! The only reason he got the last laugh was we weren't taking him seriously!"

"He had weapons and you refused to take him seriously? You guys are _thick_," Kitty said, running out of patience as well; she didn't know what else to do and was suspicious. "Kitty!" Lance said.

"Sorry. I didn't mean it, Lance," Kitty said apologetically. She shook her head. "Are you guys really, really serious?"

"_Yes!"_

Just as Kitty was about to say something else, Jean and Scott arrived. "Oh boy. Here we go," Pietro said.

"What's happened?" Scott asked. "We got a ruined house. And an injury," Freddy said.

"I don't think my spine bends the same way anymore, in case you care or anything," Wanda said.

"What?" Jean said in disbelief. "A weirdo and his truck came smashing through our house. Can I explain this later?" Lance said.

Jean nodded after a minute. "If you're moving out...open invitation..."

"Hell no! We're not looking for somebody to be all soppy-eyed about us, we just need a little help!" Pietro said harshly.

Scott raised his finger. "Hey," he said hotly. "Cool it. We'll give you a little help. You can consider it done."

The gate opened.

* * *

Some time later, Wanda was lying on the couch. Dr. McCoy had reached his verdict.

"Suffered a minor head injury, and you shifted a disc in your back. I'd recommend you just stay on your back, don't move around."

"Right," Wanda said stiffly.

Some of the others in the mansion weren't quite as receptive to the Brotherhood's presense, though all they did was sit awkwardly and shut up for the most part. Tabby seemed very amused to have them around, seeing some kind of irony in there.

Lance was the only one willing to explain Vonne's appearance, though he had neglected to tell anybody that he was provoked by the car thefts; if you were listening(and stupid), it would seem that a random racist had arrived in town and decided to bother the Brotherhood for no reason.

Jean and Professor Xavier, however, weren't that foolish. Lance hadn't been pressed for details, which he was grateful for. He hadn't wanted to put what he had done into words, especially not with Kitty around and with her seeming to have some faith in his ability to turn over a new leaf.

"Does anybody know anything about a guy who matches that description Lance gave us?" Kitty asked. "Not so far. But there are a lot of lanky blond guys. I think it helps a good deal that we have what the truck looks like," Jean said.

Lance had given up the combat knife he had nearly gotten killed with. Eventually, conclusions were reached, and Vonne's full name was found.

"Jake L. Vonne. Linked to numerous hate crimes, possession of an illegal weapon, fraud, arson, suspected of murder, some kind of services as a hitman...these are a lot of counts to get away from in the legal system," Scott said, as he walked down the hallway with Jean to inform the Brotherhood.

"Why would he come here?" Jean asked. "Well, I know it might sound like it's too easy, but maybe we're all looking for the same thing. Cloak and Dagger," Scott answered.

"So he comes into town and gets angry with the Brotherhood, and just happens to be chasing after Cloak and Dagger as well?" Jean said testily. "Scott, that doesn't make an awful lot of sense to me."

"I know it doesn't sound like it makes sense, but there are a lot of things that don't. He had an awfully big truck for some demented psychopath just looking for kicks, maybe he was prepared. He was supposed to be a mercenary."

Scott presented his findings in the news to Wanda and Pietro, who were less than impressed with Vonne's rap sheet. "He sounds like a bit of a chump now that we know what we're looking at," Pietro said.

"He nearly killed you," Jean said.

Pietro waved his hand. "He didn't even come close," he said. "Easy for you to say," Wanda said, her temper flaring up.

* * *

Lance was sprawled across the couch with Kitty sitting next to him. "Way better than our place," he said contentedly. "Maybe just for now. Maybe all we need is a good fixer-upper...but we can't afford that. All our funds dried up completely."

"Hmm," Kitty murmured. She sighed. "Hey, Lance? Can I, like, ask you something?"

Lance cracked his knuckles. "Shoot, Kitty," he said.

"Did you seriously provoke him in any way?" Kitty said. "What's 'seriously'?" Lance asked.

"You know the kind of thing I mean, Lance, I know you do," Kitty said, lifting her head.

Lance took a deep breath. "If I were bluntly honest, would you forgive me?" he said.

"Uh-oh," Kitty said under her breath. "Hey, now, it wasn't _that_ bad. Okay. It was pretty bad, actually. I had this crazy idea about...taking collection plates," Lance said, feeling worse with every word.

"You stole from the church?" Kitty said, alarmed. She got off the couch. "You went to the church, and then you stole donations?"

"Pietro did it!" Lance said defensively. "Look, all I did was take a few good hubcaps. Is that so bad?"

"That's bad," Kitty said. "Your idea. Right?"

Lance looked defeated. "Yes. You're right," he said. He jerked his head up. "But what if I said, 'I'm gonna make up for this in a major way'? What if I did that?"

"What if? Lance, _will _you?"

Lance nodded eagerly. "Hey, I was with SHIELD for all of...God, I dunno, two weeks? Yeah, I can do good, I'll clean up my act. Cross my heart, Kitty. Trust me." He gave his most winning smile. It did not melt Kitty's heart as Lance had hoped; he rather thought he had overdone it by a large margin. But Kitty seemed relatively satisfied.

"Okay."

"Good." Lance looked more solemn. "But don't think I wanna get back into the X-Men stuff, no thank you. I learned my lesson on that already."


	9. Not Like Spike TV

Uneventful hours passed. The Brotherhood seemed capable of behaving decently, though it was unnatural to see them as stiff, awkward, and able to keep their mouths shut for hours on end. Kurt preferred this rather solemn Brotherhood to the group the X-Men had known and disliked for so long. He was less keen on seeing Lance and Kitty in such close proximity with each other, but had fought himself, trying to argue that he looked at Kitty like a sister more than anything.

_I should know, real brothers and sisters don't get along quite as well,_ Kurt thought, looking from Rogue to Wanda and Pietro. It weighed on his mind, from the first couple hours that the Brotherhood had spent with them, all the way to the point where he found out the team was going out again; Cloak and Dagger had been tracked down. Or at least, Dagger had. An intangible teleporter was far more difficult to get a handle on. Dagger was busy trying to go after a drug deal at a harbor, and the Professor had managed to find her on Cerebro.

Kitty had gone so far as to mention the situation around Lance before she left with the other X-Men. After being told, he had gone on to spread the news to the rest of the Brotherhood.

"Drug deal?" Todd said. "You mean, like the grittiness and the machine guns and that sort of thing you see on SpikeTV?"

Lance nodded dully. "Something like that."

"Maybe the X-Geeks aren't exactly what I thought they were."

Lance just shrugged. "From what I can tell they think they can get those guys trying to kill the criminals, turn their hearts to mush--metaphorically speaking, bring 'em back to the Mansion, teach them to be nice and decent and use their powers for good."

"They don't think beating the crap out of drug dealers is good?" Pietro asked incredulously. "I mean, a special, saccharine, goody-two-shoes brand of good, from what I can figure out," Lance said.

"Is that what they did to you when you tried to join?" Wanda asked. "Don't even go there, that was stupid of me," Lance said bitterly.

"Yo, look where you are now. Look at what happened to the status quo. Things are getting weird all of a sudden," Todd said. "Too right it is. We should be back at our place right now, not hanging out with the X-Geeks," Pietro said angrily.

"I'm just happy I didn't end up cooking for you bunch of ingrates," Freddy interjected.

* * *

Dagger was watching with distaste from a roof as a colorful Volkswagen Beetle drove around a boathouse. She hated the position she was in for the night, left flying solo, and distracted by Cloak's needs. She was worried sick about him; she had failed to provide the energy he needed, and they had copped it in a fight, but had managed to get out in one piece. She looked aroud, feeling the falling darkness was going to give her an easy victory.

Dagger heard a noise behind her and turned around, seeing Kurt with Rogue. "I sincerely hope you weren't going down there," he said in a lowered voice.

"Why are you here?" Dagger hissed. "You don't understand us. You don't understand what we're doing."

Wolverine climbed onto the roof. "Funny," he said, as Shadowcat phased through the flattop near him. "Looks like it's just one of you tonight, lady."

"Leave me."

"Where's Cloak?" Kitty asked.

Dagger pointed at Kitty. "I told you...leave me. I can't talk to you. Cloak isn't available right now."

"He's injured?" Jean asked. Dagger was startled; she hadn't seen her arrive with Scott and Rogue. "Not injured. Starving."

Scott sighed. "I knew this would end something like this."

"It's not going to end," Dagger said. "Not yet."

Scott looked at Jean. "We want to help you," she said. "We weren't looking for a fight. We wanted to keep you out of trouble."

"We can do that...fine," Dagger said uncomfortably.

Logan remained still. "You look pretty lonesome tonight. Did he leave you?"

"No," Dagger said. "He'd never leave me. We need each other." Scott groaned quietly. "We do, and you have no idea what kind of suffering I've endured with him. He told me to keep going solo if anybody figured out to kill him."

"You can't, can you?" Kitty said, looking blank. "We couldn't hit him if we wanted to--and we didn't."

"Ty...he can die. I think so. If he starves to death," Dagger said, her voice trembling. "I'm the only one who can keep him alive, unless...well, he has to kill people. You don't get it."

"You're right, I don't," Scott said. "Tyrone was normal. We both were. We came off badly in a drug test--everybody but us died, it was the damndest thing, but something happened to us--I guess it gave us powers...or, you told me, there was a latent gene. These drugs they gave to us, they must have activated it somehow," Dagger said.

"Tyrone..." Kurt trailed off. "Did you really think our names were 'Cloak and Dagger'?" Dagger said, shaking her head. She stepped back onto a ledge. "My real name is Tandy Bowen."

"Do you want us to help you guys deal with your abilities?" Kitty asked. "You really think you can?" Dagger asked, daring to be a bit hopeful.

"Seems to work well enough for most people," Logan said. Dagger was about to continue when she was shot through the back. Blood splattered onto Kitty's legs, and she covered her mouth.

"Oh, my God!" Scott shouted. "We need to move her!"

Kurt walked over to Dagger. She tried to string a sentence together.

"Tyrone's...downstairs..."

"Hold on," Kurt said quickly. "The van!" Scott exclaimed. Kurt teleported away, holding onto Dagger.

The gunman watched from afar. "Holy--" He shook his head and turned to another man. "Call Vonne. Tell 'im he was right...there _was_ some weirdo after us."


End file.
